Item 07 - Response to OC Grand Jury Report_ Historic Rain, Yet Drought

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HISTORIC RAIN, YET DROUGHT REMAINS ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 I 2023 Page 38 of 57 APPENDIX A: ACTIONS BY LOCAL AGENCIES TO SECURE SUPPLY Water Banking: Water banking may help with droughts but is only a part of the solution and it has yet to prove itself. Water banking is being pursued Metropolitan Water District and various water suppliers. Simply put, water banking is a voluntary, market-based tool that could facilitate water transactions between willing sellers and buyers. Water right owners, who are willing to free up some of their water in a particularly dry year or years, would temporarily lease it to those who simply cannot afford to be without water. Water banking also takes water during periods when it is available and stores it. Banking water during wet years provides water districts with a cushion of protection during droughts. It also conserves any unused water, rather than letting it run out to the sea or be lost to evaporation. The storage is usually done in aquifers and generally not within the individual agencies area. The water banking agreements can be complex and depend upon broad cooperation among various agencies for delivery and storage. Conjunctive use is a catchphrase for coordinated use of surface water and groundwater. The state considers water banking a “conjunctive use” and encourages such uses.19 On a statewide level, California has 517 groundwater basins. Stanford’s Water in the West institute estimates that the capacity of underground water storage in California is at least 20 times greater than that of the state’s reservoirs and lakes. However, the means to store surplus water and return it in dry years is lacking. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 has created the opportunity to expand recharge basins and banking particularly in agricultural areas but to date, action is lagging.